


The Red Wood

by supersinger472



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Discussions of Fantasy Religion, Fantasy AU, M/M, Merchant Reyes, Road Trip of love, Wolf God Ryder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-13 16:49:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20585792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersinger472/pseuds/supersinger472
Summary: Reyes is a traveling merchant, and a bit of a scoundrel. As he's traveling through the Red Wood, home to monsters and demons, he's betrayed by his guards. Right as they're about to gut him he's saved by a mysterious naked man who calls himself a wolf?





	1. Chapter 1

The Red Wood in autumn is a beautiful place. The trees turn a million shades of orange and red and brown and come alive with the movement of birds and rodents, feasting on the bounty of fruit and nuts. After a rain, the woods are spotted with fat mushrooms of both inedible and edible varieties, growing out of the sides of trees in a gravity defying display of brown and white and red and bruise purple. But Reyes Vidal wasn’t in the Red Wood to admire its beauty or feast on its bounty, he crossed the Red Wood slogging through mud and slipping on wet roots with heavy packs dragging him down for one reason only: to get to the other side. 

The Red Wood was one of the few untamed wild places left in the kingdom of Heleus, even as loggers and farmers picked at its edges like carrion birds, its heart remained impenetrable to roads and attempts of ‘civilization,’ and as long as it stood, it remained a barrier between the city of Prodromos on one side, and Kadara Port on the other, a barrier most people would take the wide and easy King’s Road several weeks out of their way to avoid.

The guards Reyes had hired to escort him through the Red Wood, locals from Prodromos he’d overheard at the bar bragging about how well they knew the Wood, stopped abruptly in a small clearing, and Reyes took the moment to catch his breath. Merchants like him weren’t built to carry all their wares and camping equipment on their backs, but the horse and carriage had been sold days ago, to get the money to pay his guards, and besides the trees were too close and the underbrush too thick for such things. Reyes watched the guards closely once he’d caught his breath, staying bent over so they wouldn’t suspect him of spying, the three men had the muscles of farming types, but they were a little too obvious about the way they showed off the long knives they carried at their hips, using them to cut aside foliage that wasn’t remotely in their way, sharpening them by firelight until the flames glinted just so on the razor’s edge.

“Say, Mr. Vidal,” one of the guards, Collins, turned to face him and speak to him for the first time in hours. The guards and Reyes had been full of conversation the first day, but that quickly died down to tense whispers between the guards, and now the four of them only walked in frigid silence among the beautiful trees. “What kind of goods are you lugging in that pack of yours again?”

Reyes took a sip from his canteen and remembered the lie he had told them back when he asked them to escort him through the Wood. “Ink and paints mostly. I buy them in Prodromos and the mountain villages and sell it at the port, some for scribes, some for nobles, and some to be shipped overseas for Angara.”

“Do you make a good profit off of it?”

“Good enough to survive the winter in comfort, if not luxury.”

“Must be hard for you, if you’re going through these Woods.”

Reyes flicked his eyes at the other guards, who were sending Collins dirty looks for some reason. “It’s been difficult lately, yes. Every monastery to the New God that pops up seems to make my purse just that much lighter.”

Collins rested a hand on his hip as the other two guards came and stood beside him, “do you pray to the New God or the old pagan Gods, Mr. Vidal? Whichever it is, this’ll be easier if you close your eyes and pray.” In almost-unison the three guards drew their wickedly huge knives and pointed them at Reyes, who threw up his hands and smiled.

“Now gentlemen, let’s not be hasty, you want more money, correct? Just take me to town and I’ll pay you once I sell my goods, you’ll get far more than what I have on my person right now.”

“We don’t want your money, Mr. Vidal.” Collins’ cold face reflected in the surface of his knife, distorted like a monster’s. “We know you have none on you. We want your goods, the whole pack, and anything you’ve squirreled away in your pockets.”

Damn, they were perceptive if they’d noticed him slipping a few of his more valuable pieces of cargo into his pockets at night, or they’d done this before.

“Let me see if I can understand your grift.” Reyes kept his eyes fixed on the faces of his former guards, and not on those deadly, well-used knives, hoping the eye contact would remind them he was human too. “You take advantage of merchants wanting a shortcut through the Wood, and when you get a reasonable way in, you kill them, steal their cargo, and sell it yourself in Kadara Port, making a hundred percent profit on top of whatever you’re paid to guard.”

“Yeah, that’s the idea, you’re not the first to figure it out, so don’t pat yourself on the back.”

“Of course, now that I’ve proven I know your plan, you really will have to kill me.” Reyes reached for his own knife, though how he’d take on three experienced killers with heavy bags weighing him down he had no real plan.

Collins advanced towards him and raised his knife, Reyes’ legs tensed, ready to throw himself out of the way at the last moment, a frigid wind gusted through the clearing and shook the trees around them violently, raining dead leaves down around them, and the three former guards exploded in blood.

Reyes stood frozen, mouth open, watching the falling leaves drift down to cover the former men, now piles of meat and blood, their knives untouched by a drop of red. His mind fruitlessly ran through a list of reasons that could have led to this.

He looked up.

Standing in the middle of the clearing was a fifth man, or a second depending on how you counted, and Reyes could see he was unmistakably a man, as he was completely naked without any modesty or thought to hide his body from Reyes’ gaze. The stranger had naturally tan-dark skin and purple hair so long it dangled to his knees and covered his face completely in shadow. His fingers and toes were tipped with claws, sharp ones, Reyes noted, seeing his hands were soaked in blood up the the elbows, thicker clumps of meat dripping slowly to the forest floor with a wet plop, the only sound coming from the stranger.

Considering he was still standing, Reyes figured the strange man didn’t want him dead, not yet at least, so he put on his most charming smile and bowed deeply. “You have my thanks for stepping in when you did, a moment later and I’d have been mincemeat.” He carefully stepped over the bloody piles and made his way to the stranger.

A soft voice spoke from behind the curtain of hair, “you’re not...afraid of me?” The man took a step away from Reyes, like he was the one who was afraid.

To be honest, Reyes probably would have been more afraid of he had been able to actually see what the long haired man had done to his guards. “No, not at all, you’re my rescuer after all. I’m Reyes Vidal.” Reyes didn’t go as far as offering his hand to shake, that would be gross, but he smiled wider.

“I’m Morning the wolf.”

That explained it, Reyes recalled a tale he had heard in a small village outside Prodromos about the wolf God of the Red Woods, one of the Pagan Gods the New God was trying to wipe out according to the church. Morning the wolf rode the winter wind and stalked the Red Wood, devouring travelers; only offerings left on the edge of the Wood would keep the wolf from crawling out and devouring naughty children. Reyes has always chalked it up to superstition, people went into the Wood and got eaten by regular wolves or fell and broke their legs and starved, but the nude man in front of him was proof that-if not Gods-supernatural creatures lived in these Woods.

“Well Morning the wolf, I am in your debt, I have not coin to repay you, but once I make it to Kadara Port and sell my cargo, I can repay you then.”

Morning brought a clawed hand to the curtain of hair that obscured his face and started licking off the blood, Reyes couldn’t see his eyes but he could feel the weight of his gaze, was it hungry? Disdainful? Reyes wasn’t exactly an expert in dealing with supernatural creatures. “You leaving my Woods is payment enough.”

“Believe me, there’s no one who would like me to be gone from this place as much as myself, but my guides betrayed me, so I have no idea what the way is to Kadara Port.”

“You can go back the way you came then.”

Reyes looked behind him, one red bush looked the same as any other to him, for the life of him he couldn’t make out where he had come from. “I don’t have your senses, I’d be as lost going that way as I would be going forward. Not to mention I need to get to Kadara Port to sell my goods, then I can hire a horse and cart to take me far, far away from this place.” 

Morning stayed silent as he finished cleaning one hand, and moved on to the other. “You’ll get lost...I will be your guide. I know an even faster way through the Wood. One that should be easy even for your human legs.”

“You have my thanks, truly, without you I’d be dead many times over.”

“Humans are like that, you’re weak.” Morning said it so casually Reyes couldn’t take it as an insult. For a wolf who roamed the Wood and did what he pleased humans, with their clothes and weapons and civilization, must seem foolish and weak and afraid. Without another word Morning turned his back on Reyes, as he did so, he revealed the largest, fluffiest purple tail Reyes had ever imagined, sprouting from just below the dip of Morning’s lower back and swaying down in front of his rear. The fluffy tail, barely obscuring Morning’s round, perky rear end as he stepped forward with plump thighs that no doubt hid powerful muscles, made Reyes-and his groin-keenly aware that his traveling companion was completely naked. 

Reyes pointedly fixed his eyes on Morning’s strong, smooth back, covered by his long hair, rather than continue staring at his tail in hopes of seeing what else was between his legs. Between the hard travel and Morning’s strangeness, Reyes didn’t need to add blue-balls to the list of problems on this trip. It would be much more productive to think of Morning as an unusually tall, unusually intelligent wolf, rather than think of him as a fascinating, cute, and completely naked man. If only his dick got that message too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyes 'Babies Love Me' Vidal, professional chef.
> 
> '5/5 stars! I'll never go back to my husband!'  
\- Your wife

Reyes and Morning walked in icy silence for a long time, or maybe it was only icy because Reyes couldn’t think of anything to talk about, Morning leading the way with Reyes stumbling behind him and busting through the underbrush, a clown following Morning’s silent shadow slipping through the trees. The only real concession Morning made for Reyes was every so often he would stop and turn back to look at him; Reyes couldn’t see his face behind his curtain of long purple hair, but he was positive it held either a look of irritation, or a smirk of disdain. 

By the time the sun had passed overhead and was sinking low in the sky Reyes had reached his limit. “Enough! I can’t take another step!” He dropped his packs and collapsed on the ground.

Morning stopped and turned to look down at Reyes sprawled on the ground. “You’re right, we should rest now.”

Reyes practically let out a cheer, he was ten times more exhausted than he had been following the guards, and Morning's silence left his mind little else to do but wander, and all too often it wandered to his companion’s naked body. He stayed spread out on his back for a minute, just catching his breath and feeling the cool wind on his sweaty skin. “You’re going too fast Morning, I’m not in that much of a hurry to get to Kadara Port.”

“I am.” Morning said, “I want you out of my Woods.”

“I know you do, but if I collapse from exhaustion I’m going to be here that much longer, and you’ll have to take care of me.” Reyes was fortunate Morning didn’t want him dead, for some reason, or he’d be completely without a bargaining chip to get him through the Woods.

Morning was silent for a long time, then he walked over toward Reyes’ prone form and knelt down beside him, a few strands of his long hair tickled Reyes’ chest. He smelled of damp earth, and forest berries, sweet and wild. “I don’t know what humans need to survive.” He said softly.

Reyes lifted himself up on his elbows, trying to catch a look beneath Morning’s curtain of hair, but Morning pulled away before he could see anything. “What we need isn’t all that different from what wolves need I would think. We need food and water, a warm place to sleep at night, and we need to take breaks. Frequently. If we’re going to travel together we should set up a schedule, when to start our journey and when to end it. We also need to plan how we’ll get food, my bag only has a few rations for myself, I can’t feed you too.”

“I can feed myself.” Morning said, he sounded affronted, like he thought Reyes was doubting his ability to hunt as a wolf. “I’ll feed you too. Your human rations won’t last you through the trip.”

“What makes you say that? They’ve gotten me this far.” Reyes pulled over the pack that had all his rations and started pulling them out, dried jerky from a mountain village, hardtack he’d picked up from another trader on the road, and the unique trail rations sold in Prodromos made from dried fruit and olives, packed into crumbly, greasy balls. Reyes found the whole of it disgusting, but it kept him fed and moving.

Morning leaned in close to Reyes, his face just a hair’s breadth from his chest, close enough that Reyes could feel him sniffing his chest. It gave him a great view of Morning’s pointed, wolf-like ears, they were purple just like his hair, so most of the time they blended in. “Your body is hungry, you’re not feeding it properly.” He looked at the display of rations and poked one of the ration balls, it burst beneath the gentle force of his claw. “You also don’t have enough here to get through the Wood. This will last two days, three at most, it’ll take at least another week to reach your Kadara Port.”

“What?” Reyes looked at his food in shock, “but the guards told me it would only be a few day’s journey!” Then he remembered the bloody piles Morning left on the forest floor, “you know, I think I may have gotten tricked there. The less money I spent on food after all, the more I had to give to them.” He sighed and poked despondently at his food, “perhaps you are right, this food will not last me, but I don’t know any of the food in these Woods. I’d probably die at the first berry or mushroom I ate, and catching fish or fowl is out of the question.”

“That’s why I said I’d feed you, Reyes. You can have your rest while I hunt.”

“There’s no need to go through all that trouble for me right now, I do have food left still,” in truth, Reyes was a little worried about Morning walking away and getting distracted by a fox or another wolf and abandoning him to die.

“No, I will not travel with you if you are going to eat only those nasty human foods, the smell of it is all over your body, I can barely stand it.”

Reyes’ mouth twisted in a smile, to think, the fearless wolf that licked blood off his claws without a blink couldn’t handle the smell of human civilization. He was running out of arguments, it was either trust Morning not to abandon him in the woods, or push Morning into abandoning him in the woods. Not to mention he was plenty sick of this poor traveling fare too. “Very well, you will go hunt something for dinner, and I will prepare a fire.”

Morning’s fluffy purple ears flattened against his head and his tail paused in its rhythmic swaying.

“I won’t accept any argument on this point. Humans get sick if we eat raw food, you don’t want me getting sick and spending more time here, do you?”

A low growl emanated from Morning’s throat. “Fine! But you use it only for cooking! I will not travel with someone who smells of smoke.”

Reyes nodded, certain he’d be able to change Morning’s mind on that last point with a little persuasion. “You have my word, only cooking.”

“Good.” Morning pointed at a gap in the shivering tree branches, “I will be back before the moon is visible through that gap, and I will have food suitable for a traveling companion of mine.”

“Good luck out there, Morning.” Reyes gave him a cheeky wink, which, interestingly enough, made Morning lash his tail and turn his back on Reyes, storming out of the clearing. 

\---000---

Reyes fought back a yawn and leaned back against a fallen log liberally covered in mushrooms. He stretched his feet toward the cheerfully crackling fire, he might not have much in the way of survival skills, but he could start a fire in almost any condition, a boon when traveling on back roads that might not always have friendly farmers or inns on them. With his feet warming up he looked up at the canopy of trees. The sun had set long ago and he could make out tiny dots of stars. Down here, trapped beneath the blood red branches, they looked terribly far away. Along the edges of the leaves he made out a silver glow, the moon slowly crawling through the sky toward the gap in the canopy, it couldn’t be more than a few minutes away with the rate it was rising, and Morning was nowhere to be found. Reyes’ eyes drifted shut and he clasped his hands over his stomach, trying to ignore the way it twisted with hunger. He had decided to wait and see if Morning would return before cracking into his meager supply of rations, he told himself it was because he wanted to preserve his food for a long journey if Morning never returned, but deep down he wanted to see if he might earn a bit of approval from the distant wolf if he kept his promise.

“Reyes, don’t fall asleep on an empty stomach,” Morning’s voice suddenly broke the silence, as usual there had been no sign of his approach. Clutched in one hand was a limp rabbit and in the other was a vine studded with large, teardrop-shaped fruits. He tossed them into Reyes’ lap. “Cook these quickly and put out the fire.”

“It was about time you got back.” Reyes sat up slowly and picked up the dead rabbit between two fingers, he’d expected it to be a bloody mess, but Morning had cleanly snapped the neck. “What took you so long?”

“I promised I’d come back, and I was on time.” Morning sounded offended as he sat on the log next to Reyes.

“I just didn’t expect getting food would take so long.”

“I needed the proper food for you, food I’d be willing to eat.”

Reyes squinted up at Morning and pulled out his knife, “so after all that complaining about human food, now you want me to share with you?”

Morning was silent for a long time. “I went through the trouble to hunt; in a pack that would earn me the largest portion.”

“Well in human culture, the one who prepares the meal chooses who gets what portion.” Reyes racked his brain to remember how to clean a rabbit, the closest he usually got to butchery was eating bone-in steaks. Step one was obviously to try and get the fur off.

Morning pulled his feet up so he was sitting cross-legged on the log, going off of just his silence, Reyes had a strong feeling he was pouting.

“I’ll split the meal 50/50, will that make you happy?” It was like dealing with a dog begging at the table, honestly, which made Reyes the sucker for giving in to puppy eyes from a guy who might not even have a face.

“It’s acceptable.”

It took a lot of struggle and swearing, and a close call with the knife that almost ruined the rabbit and almost took Reyes’ pinky with it, but he succeeded in getting the rabbit on a spit above the fire. He wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the strange fruits Morning had brought, Reyes had bitten into one raw and found that it had a thick skin like a pepper, but was full of water and was almost completely flavorless; deciding he’d cook it like a pepper, he sliced off the tops to drain the liquid and stuck them into the hot coals at the base of the fire. All that was left to do was wait. 

“Reyes,” Morning’s spoke right next to his ear and almost made him jump right out of his skin. The wolf had been quiet for so long Reyes’d almost forgotten he was there. “How much longer until food?”

“That’s what you nearly scared me to death to ask me? Honestly.” Reyes leaned back against the log and watched the flames flutter, orange and red and yellow, a perfect fit in this strange place. As Morning shifted positions, a long strand of his hair slid against Reyes’ cheek, and he reached up to wrap it around his finger instinctively, the way he would a lover’s hair. Of all the red things in this Wood, Morning was the only thing that was purple.

Morning’s sharp intake of breath caught Reyes’ attention, Morning didn’t normally make noise as he moved around. When Reyes turned his head to see what had made Morning react like that, the wolf jumped to his feet and scrambled as far away from Reyes as he could and still be sitting on the log, all of his hair gathered in a bundle in his arms like he was protecting a baby, his ears flat and his tail tucked between his legs to protect it too.

Oops, Reyes realized his instincts had led him wrong on this one, he got to his knees and stretched out his hand, speaking softly to try and calm Morning down, “easy there, easy, I didn’t mean to spook you, I didn’t mean anything by it.” Reyes felt a little silly, but he’d do whatever it took to not lose his guide to these woods. Again. “I’m sorry I grabbed you, it wasn’t right.” 

Reyes prided himself on being able to get along with any human, and most animals he could handle well enough to not get bitten. Babies loved him, and he probably got enough love letters from men and women in a year to wallpaper a small cottage. It was only when he dealt with Morning that he felt awkward and clumsy, it wasn’t even that he couldn’t see his face, as Reyes had made dozens of deals with Turians who covered their faces in elaborate mask where he’d come out the better party. There was something about Morning, who hid his face yet walked around completely naked, moved without a sound one moment then whined about his human smell the next, that left Reyes with no idea which way he’d jump.

After several heartbeats of waiting, Morning began to uncurl, first his fluffy tail, followed by his soft, smooth legs, then his ears perked back up, eventually he was sitting up straight hugging his hair.

“I’m sorry Morning, I wasn’t thinking. What can I do to make it up to you.”

“I want more than half of the rabbit.”

Reyes almost laughed but managed to restrain himself, though he was sure the struggle for composure showed on his face. “Of course, in fact, I think it’s almost done. Let’s get ready to eat.”

\---000---

Morning ate with about all the grace and delicacy Reyes had expected from a pagan wolf God, that is to say, none at all. He chewed noisily and dripped fat and hot rabbit juices onto his hair and thighs. Normally the sight of things dripping onto bare thighs would be an exercise in self control not to stare, but just the sound of Morning tearing meat from bone with his teeth was enough to make Reyes reconsider any fleeting attraction he had had-ever, in his entire life. The wolf probably had teeth too sharp to do anything with, not unless Reyes wanted to risk a serious injury.

Once cooked and peeled, the fruits were surprisingly tasty, still crunchy and with a mild flavor that helped wash down the meaty and fatty rabbit. “These are good,” he told Morning.

“They’d taste better if you hadn’t burned them.”

“Well that’s how you fire roast things. The burntness brings out hidden flavors, or something.” Reyes actually had no idea if fire roasting had done anything to the strange fruit that simply cooking them on a spit couldn’t. “Perhaps when I settle down for the winter I’ll pen a recipe book, ‘Things to Cook When You’re Wandering Lost Through the Red Wood.’ Think it’ll sell?”

“You’re not lost.” Morning tossed a bone on the ground in front of him.

“Of course, how could I be lost when I have the Wood’s most capable guide with me?”

“Thank you,” Morning said softly, sounding surprised. “I’m glad you trust me already. Trust will be very useful in the coming days.”

That had Reyes worried, he sat up, “why exactly do we need trust?”

“The Red Wood has many obstacles, some mundane that you might encounter in any forest, some unique to the Wood.”

“Which one are you?” Reyes teased.

Morning continued his explanation without acknowledging Reyes’ question. “Tomorrow we will reach a river, and after that we will most likely pass between the Stone Gates, they’re usually guarded, and we will have to pay to get through. Beyond that the ground becomes unstable, normally I go around but doing that would extend your time here by several days. The Tiger lives in a series of caves near there, but he will hopefully be asleep when we pass, he usually sleeps away the day. If we aren’t harassed by the Tiger, and we make good time the rest of the journey, you’ll arrive in your human settlement before the sun is hottest the day after.”

Just hearing it all listed out like that exhausted Reyes, “is that really the best way?”

“It’s straight through the Wood, the most efficient way is over obstacles after all.”

Easy for a God to say, “are you sure I can handle the journey?”

“With my help, if you eat properly. No doubt in time you will find your body becoming stronger and easier to move, that’s the result of your body replacing your human food with proper forest food, and human air with forest air. Of course, once you’re back among the humans you’ll probably suffer for the rest of your life. But that’s not my problem. It would have been better if you’d never set foot in here.”

“That’s not entirely true, I wouldn’t have met you.” Reyes smiled, he was glad to have met Morning, he was so so unusual, that he had to be a valuable person to know.

Morning pulled his knees to his chest, balancing on the log, and turned his head away from Reyes. “Are you going to change your ways?”

Reyes shrugged, “if I said, ‘yes, for certain I will stop being selfish’ that would be a lie. Just because I met you doesn’t mean I’m going to turn my life around. My job is a job that encourages selfishness. In order for someone to win, someone else must lose. That’s how it is.”

“The law of the forest, in order for anything to live, something else must die.” Morning stretched out his hand, his claws glinted silver, shards of the moon glowing on the tips of his narrow, delicate hands. “Even a plant cannot grow if it is not on the bodies of many other beings.”

“Guess even Gods live by that rule,” Reyes thought about the New God, and wondered what it sounded like when it ate the smaller pagan Gods. 

Morning stood up, “it’s time to sleep. Put out the fire.”

“You’re right, it’s getting late.” Right on cue Reyes’ mouth opened in a jaw popping yawn. He spread out his bedroll and the patchwork sleeping bag he’d had his entire career. A wadded up shirt made a fine, if slightly smelly, pillow.

When Reyes returned to his sleeping bag after dousing the fire completely, feeling smug that Morning hadn’t lectured him into putting it out sooner, he nearly tripped on Morning, who was crouching on top of his bed. 

“What’s this?” 

“It’s a sleeping bag,” Reyes desperately hoped Morning wouldn’t ask him not to use it, it was cold without the fire. “Like a portable bed.”

“It’s soft, and warm.” Morning lifted his head and Reyes felt the wind get knocked out of him, from within the shadowy lump that was Morning glowed two bright yellow eyes, the pupils wide in the dark yet glowing with a silver light that reminded Reyes of reflected moonlight, shining out from within.

“Soft and warm is the idea,” Reyes tried not to let on how shocked he was. He sat down on top of his sleeping bag and removed his boots and belt, choosing to sleep in the rest of his clothes for the sake of warmth. It took a bit of careful wiggling, but he made it inside even with Morning sitting on him.

“Can I try it?”

Reyes was sorely tempted to tell him no, he was tired, and it was cold out of the bag, he didn’t want to play and he certainly didn’t want to sleep on the wet ground. But logic won out and told him he had to be nice or Morning would leave. “Very well.” Reyes sat up and folded down the top layer of the bag, about to climb out.

There was a freezing cold wind, Reyes didn’t see the trees shake, but he heard, and assumed it was similar magic to what Morning had used to destroy the guards. Only instead of being torn to pieces, Reyes ended up with the slender body of Morning tucked in next to him. Since Morning didn’t object to Reyes staying in bed, he slowly laid down next to Morning and tucked his arms into the bag for good measure.

The first thing he noticed was how warm Morning was, with him tucked into the sleeping bag with Reyes, he didn’t feel the chill at all. Not wanting to push too far, Reyes turned over so he was facing away from Morning, but even so they were close enough that he could smell his scent, not at all like an animal’s, but like a human who’d been rolling in mud and running through flowers and berries. Reyes closed his eyes and pressed his face into his ‘pillow,’ and tried not to focus on how good Morning smelled or how warm he was or imagine how soft his skin would feel if he just reached behind himself and slid a hand over Morning’s thigh.

Sometimes Reyes felt like there was some God out there pulling the strings of his life specifically to make things difficult for him and laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a god laughing at Reyes, and it's me
> 
> check out my bloogs  
mpregnateyourocs.tumblr.com  
@SweenMaxine
> 
> ~Thanks for reading~ ;^Y

**Author's Note:**

> Follow my tumblr @ mpregnateyourocs.tumblr.com  
Follow my twitter @SweenMaxine
> 
> Thanks for reading~★


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